My whole house smells like cedar...

[Krystal Anne]

Okay, so I've always believed cedar was toxic to tarantulas, but now I'm reading that it's toxic to insects, not arachnids? Does anyone have any scientific sources?

I'm worried because my house is undergoing some remodeling and a few walls are being covered in cedar planks(?) like this:



Anyway, the entire floor smells like cedar. My room with all my tarantulas and spiders is on the other side of the house on the same floor, but if I leave my door open, the smell gets in.

Right now, I sealed my door, opened my windows, and placed some fans to blow air outside. The smell is pretty much gone from my room, but how dangerous can this be? If the smell goes away over time from the house, is it safe, or will the danger stay so long as the wood is present?

*(I have a second door in my room that leads to my bathroom, which has a door that leads to an office, which has a door that leads back to the rest of the house lol, so that's my way of getting in and out right now while my main door is sealed lol)

 

[MikeyD]

The scent of cedar is the result of terpenes which are volatile organic compounds and thujone makes up a high percentage of terpenes but there are others in lesser amounts. In a confined space they can be toxic and are known to be irritating to the reparatory tract of quite a few animals and they can have effects on the nervous system. If you were to simply keep the room ventilated then there should be no problems once the oils/terpenes dissipate. Cutting the wood releases the oils but it usually doesn't take long for them to die down. Building a cedar box and putting your Tarantulas inside would be bad news, there's a reason these trees load themselves up with these compounds and that they are used to repel insects. So I would keep doing what you are doing and be sure to keep the windows open so that you can ventilate the area.

If you want to read about it here are a couple links.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1062158/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2016/4595823/

 

[Krystal Anne]

The scent of cedar is the result of terpenes which are volatile organic compounds and thujone makes up a high percentage of terpenes but there are others in lesser amounts. In a confined space they can be toxic and are known to be irritating to the reparatory tract of quite a few animals and they can have effects on the nervous system. If you were to simply keep the room ventilated then there should be no problems once the oils/terpenes dissipate. Cutting the wood releases the oils but it usually doesn't take long for them to die down. Building a cedar box and putting your Tarantulas inside would be bad news, there's a reason these trees load themselves up with these compounds and that they are used to repel insects. So I would keep doing what you are doing and be sure to keep the windows open so that you can ventilate the area.

If you want to read about it here are a couple links.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1062158/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2016/4595823/

Wow, that's incredibly helpful, and those were interesting reads. I'll make sure there's a ton of ventilation and fresh airflow. We normally have the AC on here and there throughout the day to cool and filter the air as well so that may help. Thank you so much, I truly appreciate it!

 

[MikeyD]

Some seriously dense reading material but gives an idea of just how active some of these terpenes can be when it comes to repelling or killing insects. Too bad there isn't more info available on how these terpenes effect arachnids. I thought there might be more because spider mites are a serious plant pest and there has been a lot of study in their control. Generally arachnids like mites are best controlled with their own specific class of chemicals called miticides and many of these actually use a compound made by Streptomyces to kill the mites. So maybe arachnids are less susceptible to the chemical compounds in cedar but I'm really not sure so better safe than sorry.

 

[FrDoc]

The scent of cedar is the result of terpenes which are volatile organic compounds and thujone makes up a high percentage of terpenes but there are others in lesser amounts. In a confined space they can be toxic and are known to be irritating to the reparatory tract of quite a few animals and they can have effects on the nervous system. If you were to simply keep the room ventilated then there should be no problems once the oils/terpenes dissipate. Cutting the wood releases the oils but it usually doesn't take long for them to die down. Building a cedar box and putting your Tarantulas inside would be bad news, there's a reason these trees load themselves up with these compounds and that they are used to repel insects. So I would keep doing what you are doing and be sure to keep the windows open so that you can ventilate the area.

If you want to read about it here are a couple links.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1062158/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thujone

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/psyche/2016/4595823/

Wow! Very impressive.